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Lake County: Finland man convicted in illegal wolf killing

Duluth News Tribune

Posted:
11/16/2012 12:01:00 AM CST

Updated:
11/16/2012 08:56:47 PM CST

A 55-year-old Lake County man was convicted Friday in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis for his role in the illegal killing of two wolves in 2010, when the animals were still protected under the federal Endangered Species Act.

A jury found Vernon Lee Hoff of Finland guilty of violating the Endangered Species Act and making false statements to a federal officer. Hoff was indicted in July along with co-defendant Kyler James Jensen, 31, also of Finland.

According to the U. S. attorney's office, evidence was presented over a four-day trial that Hoff lied to U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service officials when asked whether he spoke on the telephone with Jensen about transporting the carcasses of two wolves that Jensen purposely killed with his vehicle on Feb. 17, 2010. After the call, according to prosecutors, Jensen loaded the two gray wolves into his vehicle, traveled to Superior National Forest and buried them with the use of a bulldozer.

Prosecutors said Friday that Jensen pleaded guilty on Tuesday to two counts of violating the Endangered Species Act.

The two men will be sentenced at a later date.

Wolves in the Great Lakes region were officially removed from federal protection earlier this year and are now open for limited hunting and trapping in parts of northern Minnesota.